Direct Drive vs. Idler Drive vs. Belt drive

@mijostyn,

agree completely.

i intentionally did not mention dollars, but degree of effort. it’s not trivial to have the right bearing/platter/plinth/motor assembly to get a great result.

there are many giant killer turntables. but lots of ordinary ones too.

just having a belt or idler and no servo is not sufficient.

regarding the CS Port LFT1 it has considerable mass (both plinth and platter) and an air film suspension and air bearing (low flow, low pressure) all contributing to low noise.

the Saskia has a 180 pound plinth + 40 pound platter and built in suspension. all that mass in all the right places does help to make it easily the quietest idler i’ve heard.

but there are pressings where my active shelf takes the NVS to another level of precision.

both the CS Port and Saskia might benefit from a Stacore shelf. i say ’might’ because with isolation you have to try it to know whether it helps.

@mikelavigne 
Have you done the spin test with any of your current TT’s Mike ?
I disconnected the belt from my Maplenoll yesterday, and gave the 100 lb platter a spin. It took 45 min before it was stopped completely, i was expecting 10 min or something like that.

@kps25sc

no; not done that. would guess that the CS Port, with it’s air bearing and air film, would go on for a while.

if/when i do it i will report.

don't expect that the Saskia idler would be good at that. as i recall Win said it has some designed in resistance in the bearing. those design subtleties are beyond me. i might have misunderstood.

congrats on the Maplenoll tt, not heard one myself but they are legends.

The CS Port looks like a much better built Maplenoll. Heavy plinth, air bearing, belt drive and integrated air LT arm. Most Maplenoll’s where badly finished, and the pumps where nightmares. High pressure pumps where made out of oil lubricated refrigerator pumps and would leave your listening room smelling like a machine shop. But like old American cars they can be modded into amazing performance, they are simple constructions that work well.

Is Maplenoll still in Business?
MikeL, It all comes down to the resonance frequency of the suspension if it is under 3 Hz both vertically and horizontally you are in business regardless of how you do it. Just mass is not enough. You can have footfall problems with the heaviest of turntables then there is the rumble problem. 
The only turntable with a true air bearing is the Kuzma Stabi XL DC Air.
Because the air bearing is impervious to load it also has what I think is the heaviest platter of any production turntable. The CS port uses air for the thrust bearing only. The rest of the bearing is the typical spindle like the Air Force Tables. 
The Saskia is interesting because unlike other idler drives it does not use a stepped pulley to control speed. The idler is fixed and the motor speed is changed. Neat. Otherwise it is another mass loaded turntable in need of a suspension. But as you say they are both quiet for you. They could be quieter. But there is a downside to suspending a whole turntable. The whole affair is going to be a bit...bouncy. This might be disturbing to some. I would love to compare a Sota Cosmos with a Schroder CB arm to all these tables. Because the bouncy part is internalized it is easy to use. With the suspension, the magnetic trust bearing and the Eclipse drive I do not think a turntable could get much quieter. The standard drive in the Sapphire and Nova is quite good. The Eclipse is more sophisticated and I am sure it is superior to many drives out there. I would not use the Road Runner as it is a servo mechanism while the Condor is a three phase oscillator controlled drive which will maintain it's speed under any normal circumstance like any synchronous motor. Is there a sonic difference between the Eclipse and the standard Sota drive? I seriously doubt it. Like I said before I would spend the $1K on a better cartridge or tonearm before I spent it on the Eclipse package.